Team Stats

Shots

Ground Balls

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Face Offs Won

Man Up

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – The Sacred Heart men's lacrosse team used a dominating 13-3 run between the second and third quarters to defeat Wagner, 17-5, from Hameline Field on Saturday afternoon. With the win and results finalized around the conference, SHU advances to the NEC Tournament for a program record third straight season as the Pioneers have earned the No. 3 seed and will take on the No. 2 seeded Hobart Statesmen in the semifinal round on Thursday, May 2nd from the Waldron Family Stadium on the campus of top-seeded Mount St. Mary's.

A dominating 12-goal victory on Saturday goes down as a SHU record-tying ninth win of the season, as the Pioneers enter the postseason with a 9-5 overall mark (4-2 NEC) which is tied for the highest single-season win total in the program's Div. I history (since 2000). In addition, the four league wins is tied for the most wins the Pioneers have accumulated in the program's Div. I history. In addition, SHU moves to 5-2 on the road in 2019 which sets a single-season program Div. I record for the most road wins in a campaign. SHU had previously won four games away from home twice before in the Div. I era, most-recently in 2017.

A bevy of records fell in today's action as Max Tuttle tallied two goals, breaking free of Stephen Grabow '03 for the all-time SHU record for most career goals. Tuttle came into today tied with Grabow with 129 career goals and with this two on the day, Tuttle now has 131 career goals and sits in sole possession of first place on the all-time career goals leaderboard in SHU men's lacrosse program history.

Joe Saggese made history yet again, finishing the day with four points (three goals, one assist) to become the first player in program history to tally 70 points (42 goals, 28 assists) in a single-season while also becoming the first Pioneer to tally 200 career points as he now has 201 (124 goals, 77 assists) across his four-year career at SHU.

Logan Liljeberg led the charge on the day for SHU with a career-high six points as he scored four times (career-high) and dished out two assists, as he led a SHU contingent that included a total of five Pioneers who tallied multi-goal games. As a team, the Pioneers racked up a single-game program record 22 caused turnovers as Wagner went 16-for-29 on clearing attempts and was forced into 28 turnovers for the game.

SCORE Sacred Heart 17 / Wagner 5

RECORDS Sacred Heart (9-5, 4-2 NEC) / Wagner (2-12, 0-6 NEC)

LOCATION Waldron Family Stadium / Staten Island, NY

First Quarter (2-1 SHU)

Both defenses dominated the early stages as Wagner's goalkeeper Matt Sefcik notched seven saves in holding SHU's potent offense to just two goals in the period

Wagner jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as Keven Gray netted the game's first goal 5:11 into the action

SHU answered quickly with an Alex Weiss unassisted marker and closed the quarter with a Liljeberg unassisted strike to give the Pioneers a 2-1 advantage

Shots heavily favored SHU 16-5 while the Pioneers also won the turnover battle 6-2 but only led by one after the first frame

Second Quarter (8-2 SHU)

Held to just one goal in the opening quarter, the Pioneer's 11th-ranked scoring offense broke out with a six-goal frame in the second as a 4-0 run catapulted SHU out front into a 6-1 lead

The unassisted goals kept coming as Drew Edwards scored 25 seconds into the quarter while Weiss added his second of the game and Jake Giaquinto won the ensuing faceoff and carried in for his fifth goal of the season to make it 5-1 Pioneers

Liljeberg tacked on his second of the day with 7:31 left in the half and Tuttle later dished out assists on consecutive goals from Saggese and Liljeberg as the lead favored SHU 8-2 at the halftime break

The Pioneers registered 17 shots in the quarter, committed just one turnover, won the ground ball battle 13-3 and led in faceoff wins 6-2 as SHU completely dominated the period

Third Quarter (15-4 SHU)

After a scoreless opening five-plus minutes of play, Conor Sullivan notched his second goal of the season before Wagner responded with back-to-back goals to make it 9-4 with 7:15 left in the quarter

This 2-0 Wagner burst, however, was the closest the Seahawks would get to the lead for the remained of play as the Pioneers ripped off a season-high 8-0 run to take complete control of the game

Six straight SHU goals finished off the third quarter as Avveduti, Saggese, Liljeberg, Tuttle, Edwards and Tuttle again completed the scoring for the Pioneers in the period

The 6-0 SHU run all came with under five minutes remaining in the quarter

Saggese started the run by scoring in transition while SHU scored on their next two possessions, both coming directly off faceoff wins from Giaquinto, as Liljeberg took a feed from Tuttle and scored while Tuttle did it himself just 39 seconds later

With 1:22 remaining in the frame, Edwards took a feed from Saggese and scored his second of the day before Tuttle added an unassisted marker with just 17 seconds left in the quarter to complete the scoring

The largest single-quarter shot discrepancy came in the third as SHU outshot Wagner 17-4 (+13) and forced the Seahawks into eight turnovers in the third quarter alone

Fourth Quarter (17-5 SHU)

With the outcome largely out-of-hand, SHU added two more goals to complete the 8-0 run as Saggese completed his hat trick coming off a feed from Liljeberg before Connor O'Reilly got involved in the scoring with his first and only goal of the day

Colton King was subbed onto the field for Brooks Dutton, receiving his first chance at playing time on the season in the cage, and he responded with some quality minutes in his 7:22 of action, making two saves and allowing just one goal for the Pioneers

NEXT GAME The No. 3 seeded Pioneers (9-5, 4-2 NEC) head back to the NEC Tournament for the third straight season where they'll take on the No. 2 seed Hobart Statesmen (10-4, 4-2 NEC). This marks the second time these two sides are facing each other in the NEC Tournament, with Hobart taking a 15-9 victory at home back in 2017.